The present invention relates to a network computer operating upon downloading programs and data necessary for data processing from a server (server computer), and a boot method applied to this computer.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 10-047910 filed on Feb. 27, 1998, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
In recent years, new computer architectures called network computers have been developed in place of personal computers.
This network computer is designed to be used while being connected to a network, and downloads all programs and data necessary for data processing from the server via the network. Each network computer operating as a client of the server need not have the programs or data and can flexibly cope with updating or the like of the OS (Operating System) and application programs. The total cost of ownership can, therefore, be drastically reduced.
The network computer is designed to be used while being connected to the network, as described above. No consideration is generally made for use in a mobile environment in which the computer is not connected to the network. A new network computer which can perform the same operations as in the online state in which the computer is connected to the network must be developed even in an offline state in which the computer is not connected to the network.